W126 Temp Gauge - Overheating

[Arthur Daley]

I have had a problem recently whereby when the car has been driven for around 20 mins the temp gauge goes up towards the red and gets pretty damn close. At this point I usually blast the heater on hot and it falls back pretty quickly. To try and solve the problem I recently flushed the cooling system and fitted a new thermo as a local specialist suggested that they were often the culprit. However it still has the problem. Is the engine overheating or is my temp gauge dicky??

By the way it is an 83 500 sel.

Cheers

 

[stwat]

I was recently having the same problem with my 300se. I replaced the viscous fan clutch which literally had no resistance left at all and have had a nice steady coolant temp since.

 

[ianrandom]

Ditto. Very easy fix and only about £70 from EuroCarParts.
If not that then you need a new radiator i would think.

 

[Stratman]

Do the famous carrot test on the fan. When the engine is hot and the fan is running, it should have enough force behind it to cleanly chop a carrot.

Do mind your fingers though